CalArts Dance Ensemble Celebrates Oya, Brazilian Goddess of the Winds and the Weather

Audiences familiar with the CalArts Dance Ensemble know never to expect the obvious. Nine separate stages of dancers and graphic animation wowed onlookers one year. And last year, in a performance based on the music of Charles Mingus, the audience sat all around the action to help build on the “improv” atmosphere of the music.

“We always try to find an idea that will challenge us--and one that can support four or five choreographers,” says Cristyne Lawson, artistic director of the ensemble, which is composed primarily of CalArts faculty members and a few advanced students.

Lawson started the ensemble 9 years ago when she became dean of the dance school at CalArts. She hoped the group would attract first-rate dance teachers.

“I didn’t want faculty made up of people who were just teachers,” Lawson says. “As dean, it’s important for me to have a faculty interested in performance--I don’t want them to stop creating. And I don’t want them limited to only doing the kinds of pieces they would do for students. Obviously, I had to give them an outlet.”

This year’s outlet, a series of performances that start on Thursday, has a theme based on Oya, the Brazilian goddess of wind and weather. Lawson calls her a leader of women, and, as the guardian of both stormy and calm skies, she “represents the different moods of women.”

The dances will reflect these changing moods. Four different choreographers--faculty members Kurt Weinheimer, Rebecca Bobele, Lawrence Blake and Lawson herself--came up with their very different interpretations of the goddess theme. But each dance will be set to music by the a cappella female music group called Sweet Honey and the Rock.

“I’ve wanted to do something with their music for a long time now,” Lawson says. The group has cut six albums of folk songs and religious spirituals. “They do a lot of Baptist gospel songs, but there are some African songs too.”

Lawson says the African element is important because the goddess Oya originated in Africa. Slaves brought to Brazil were allowed to keep certain aspects of their African religion as long as they were modified to fit into the structure of the Roman Catholic Church.

“For every god or goddess there is a corresponding saint,” Lawson says. What resulted is a religion that is full of colorful costumes, rituals and dances, which makes it intriguing to a choreographer. Or as Lawson says, “It’s just a lot more fun.”